Passing of Siyyid Kázim-i-Rashtí, the disciple and self-proclaimed successor of Shaykh Ahmad, in Karbalá. Because Siyyid Kázim designated no successor, within a short period of time the Shaykhí school was split into several factions. The two largest were grouped around Siyyid `Alí Muhammad and Hájí Mullá Muhammad Karím Khán Kirmání. The first faction moved away from the outward practice of Islám towards a development of inner realities and ultimately a new revelation. The second emphasized the continuing role of the Prophets and the Imáms and sought acceptance from the Shí'í majority which had formerly excommunicated Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kázim. [BBD126–7; MH26; SBBH1; TB6, Sayyid Kazim Rashti by Moojan Momen]

The latter, Hájí Mullá Muhammad Karím Khán Kirmání, became an enemy of the Báb. [SDH165]

BBRSM9 for a brief account of his life and the Shaykhí school under his leadership.

See MH28 for a picture.

See DB43–5, MH46–7 for an account of a warning of his passing in a shepard's dream.

Bahá'u'lláh condemned him in both the Kitáb-i-Íqán (p.184-186) and the Lawh-i-Qiná.

See DB24-25, 40-42 for Siyyid Kázim's exhortations to his followers predicting the manifestation of both the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh.

Karím Khán wrote a number of refutations of the Báb. The first, Isháqu'l-Bátil (The Crushing of Falsehood) was published in July. This caused some Bábís to dissociate themselves from Shaykhism. [BBRSM17–18]

Táhirih was accused of instigating the assassination of her uncle, Muhammad Taqí Baraghání, and was confined to her father's house while about 30 Bábís were arrested. Four, including the assassin, were taken to Tihrán and held in the house of Khusraw Khán. [BKG41; BW18:380; DB276–8]

Bahá'u'lláh, who was living in Tihrán, visited the detainees and gave them money. [BKG41; DB278–9; GPB68]

Mullá `Abdu'lláh confessed to the murder of Hájí Mullá Muhammad Taqí and was helped to escape. [BKG41–2; DB278]

See BKG42 for why Bahá'u'lláh was thought to have engineered his escape. Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned for a few days for having assisted in Mullá `Abdu'lláh's escape.

This was Bahá'u'lláh's first imprisonment. [BKG41; BW18:380; DB585]

Shaykh Salib-i-Karímí, one of the imprisoned Bábís, was publicly executed in Tihrán.

He was the first to suffer martyrdom on Persian soil. His remains were interred in the courtyard of the shrine of the Imám-Zádih Zayd in Tihrán. [B166; BW18:380; DB280]

The remaining captives were returned to Qazvín. Hájí Asadu'lláh-i-Farhádí was secretly put to death in prison. Mullá Táhir-i-Shírází and Mullá Ibrahím-i-Maballátí were also put to death. [B166; BW18:380; DB280–3]

DB280–3 says `the rest of' the detainees were put to death by the relatives of Hájí Mullá Muhammad Taqí.

Mírzá Taqí Khán was determined to execute the Báb to halt the progress of His religion. On his orders the Báb was taken from Chihríq to Tabríz. [B152; BBR76–7; GPB51]

His guard took Him on a circuitous, much longer route through Urúmíyyih where His presence was noted by American missionaries. [B152; BBR73, 76]

Forty days before the Báb was to leave Chihríq He collected all His documents, Tablets, pen cases, seals, His agate rings, and His last Tablets to Mírzá 'Abdu'l-Karím Qazvíní, and put them in a coffer. He entrusted it to Mullá Báqir, one of the Letters of the Living, and instructed him to deliver it to His secretary. In the event that something should happen to Himself, the secretary was to proceed to Tihrán to deliver the box to ‘Jináb-i-Bahá', that is, Bahá'u'lláh. In His last Tablets, Mírzá Husayn-'Alí Núrí was referred to again and again as "Him Whom God shall make Manifest" also, He was referred to as "Bahá'u'lláh". [CH49; B151–2; DB504–5; TN25–6]

When the box was opened they found a Tablet in the form of a pentacle with 500 verses consisting of derivatives of the word ‘Bahá'. [B151–2; DB504–5; TN25–6]

Hájí Ákhúnd, Hájí Amín and Ibn-i-Abhar were arrested. Hájí Ákhúnd was imprisoned in Tihrán for two years; Hájí Amín was imprisoned in Qazvín for two years; and Ibn-i-Abhar was imprisoned in Tihrán for four years. [BW18:383–4]

Mírzá Mahmúd-i-Furúghí was arrested in Furúghí and sent to Mashhad. From there he was sent to Kalát-i-Nadírí where he was imprisoned for two years. [BW18:384]

In Mashhad a mob set out to kill Mírzá Husayn-i-Bajistání, but failing to find him they looted his shop. [BW18:384]

Two believers were arrested during the same period. Hájí Amín was sent to the prison of Qazvín, and Hand of the Cause Ibn-i-Abhar was consigned for four years in Tíhran, in which he bore the same chains as Bahá'u'lláh did, during the Latter's imprisonment in 1852.[Essay by Mehdi Wolf]

Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i and the World of Images, by Todd Lawson, in Shi‘i Trends and Dynamics in Modern Times, ed. Denis Hermann and Sabrina Mervin (2010). Characteristics and function of this world as found in the writings of Mullá Muhammad Muhsin Fayd Káshání and Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsá'í. Does not mention the Baha'i Faith. [about]